Lacking “seriousness”
Democrat says Gop-picked group lacks diversity
Saratoga County Dems say Gop-picked police reform panel lacks diversity./
Saratoga County’s Democratic chair wants the county ’s Republican leadership to expand its predominately white police reform committee to include members who can “ensure appropriate representation of views from people of color.”
In a press release, Todd Kerner criticized the county ’s leaders for lacking “seriousness” when Board of Supervisors Chairman Preston Allen appointed seven white county administrators and elected officials to an eight-member panel that will review the county ’s Sheriff ’s Office’s policies and practices for racial bias. Such groups are mandated under the state’s Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, announced earlier this year by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
While acknowledging the county is predominantly white, Kerner said “the collaborative cannot function effectively without appropriate, even disproportionate, representation for people of color.”
He also complained that the county lacked “urgency ” as it waited months after Cuomo launched the initiative in June before appointing the county ’s committee, which is to complete its work and adopt changes to police policies by April 1 or risk loss of state funding.
“Evidently, this lack of importance was shared by others in the Republican leadership as no action on this directive had been initiated until this past week,” wrote Ker
ner on Saturday. “Additionally, and in direct conflict with the directive outlined in the Executive Order to ‘involve the entire community in the discussion,’ the general public was not afforded the opportunity for input into the composition of the collaborative or given the opportunity to raise concerns for discussion.”
Allen, whose collaborative meets with the public for the first time at 3 p.m. Thursday, did not respond to a Times Union request for comment about Kerner’s criticism.
But county GOP Chair Carl Zeilman said the county is dealing with the virus pandemic and “simultaneously meeting the mounting challenges of a broken criminal justice system that returns dangerous criminals back on our streets,” adding, “the Saratoga County Sheriff ’s Office has done a tremendous job keeping Saratoga
County safe.”
Zeilman also accused Democrats of standing by while “violent protesters” shut down streets in Saratoga Springs. Protesters did shut down streets during a recent protest, but none of the rallies in the city have been violent. He said the county “will never embrace the Democrat agenda to defund our police.”
“Democrat leaders would be well advised to focus on reversing the dangerous bail reform legislation and keeping violent felons off our streets, so we do not have more incidents like the Zim Smith trail attacker in Malta,” Zeilman said in an email. In September, police said a jogger was sexually assaulted on the trail in Malta; a suspect was apprehended a short time later.
Kerner said Zeilman’s comments did not address the makeup or the timing of the committee and were a reversion “to his divisive playbook by noting it is nothing more than ‘defunding the police.’
This can be no further from the truth.”
Kerner said that the Sheriff ’s Office, with a budget of $31 million, is a taxpayer-funded entity. As such, the agency ’s “principal charge is to protect the constitutional and civil rights of all citizens.” Therefore, he said, all residents should have their voices heard.
“It is unfortunate and frankly a dereliction of duty that County Republican leaders are not using this as an opportunity to listen to and improve relations with the entire community,” Kerner said.
In addition to expanding the membership of the committee, Kerner wants the Republicandominated county leadership to schedule public meetings to gather public comment “on issues of importance and potential solutions to any issues that are identified.”
“Anything less is a disservice to all of the residents and taxpayers of Saratoga County and to anyone who may visit our wonderful county,” he said.